THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
CAMPAIGNS & BATTLES
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Books on the Eastern Front of WW2
Geevee wrote: "Bracken wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Nothing too serious I hope Bracken."I was hesitant to offer a reply on the grounds of derailing the thread, but the honest truth is: it is a terminal conditi..."
It's not THAT bad - yet. There are some days that are...bad, but there are also many days i'm fine if not better. Most of the nature of the beast is at this stage - unpredictability.
I'll offer thoughts when I have time and energy. Generally speaking though i'm not inclined to offer any advice or insight unless asked. One of my personality quirks = P
Well it's good to see you here in the group Bracken, hopefully we can enjoy some good fun discussions together :)
Bracken - がんばってください
message 255:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
This book is due out soon, it may interest some members here in the group:
by Christian HartmannDescription:
The war between Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union that raged between 1941 and 1945 was unprecedented in the scale of the destruction that it wrought and the deep scars that it left behind. The invasion of the Soviet Union was the conflict that Hitler had always ultimately planned for in his dream of creating a 'Thousand Year Reich'. From the beginning it was a struggle for survival, conducted with great bitterness and savagery by opponents who knew that defeat meant the destruction of everything they stood for.
By 1945 a huge swathe of Europe between Berlin and Moscow had been reduced to a devastated wasteland in which whole societies had been erased from the face of the earth. Over 26 million Soviets and between four and five million Germans lay dead. The eventual victory of the Red Army transformed the Soviet Union into one of the world's two superpowers. It also saw the complete destruction of Hitler's megalomaniac vision for the East, the division of the German Reich, and the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe for a generation.
Enriched by a wealth of eye-witness testimony from both the Soviet and the German sides, Operation Barbarossa paints a masterly overview of these momentous four years and their human consequences - one that is both gripping and deeply moving.
Here is a book that I am pretty sure will interest a number of members in the group:
by E. R. HootonDescription:
In the late 1930s the Soviet Union experienced a brutal Ezhovshchina which swept through all levels of its society with millions arrested and tens of thousands shot for reasons lacking any form of ethics.
As historian, E.R. Hooton describes in this absorbing and revealing history, the Soviet armed forces did not escape the bloody tidal wave which swept away the majority of their most experienced and gifted officers. One of the driving forces for the Red Army Purges was a bitter dispute between the conservatives and radicals who sought a form of warfare based on deep-roaming mechanised forces. But the conservatives’ ensuing bitterness was due to the fact that the radicals were unable to make the mechanised forces viable operationally and this failure would prove to be the major factor in driving the radicals to the execution chambers.
Yet as the leadership of the Soviet forces was cut to pieces, the Red Army was deployed in operations at the extremities of Stalin’s empire. Despite showing ominous signs of weakness, in every case it triumphed. The Japanese had been defeated on the Korean border at Lake Khasan in 1938 and a year later suffered a major defeat on the Mongolian border at the River Khalkin (Khalkin Gol) in an offensive directed by the future Marshal Zhukov. These guns had barely ceased fire when there was a major invasion of eastern Poland following the Ribbentrop Pact. On the back of that, the Baltic States were compelled to allow the Russians to base forces in their borders.
But as the Purges eased and Moscow became overconfident, the massive Red Army became enmeshed in the disastrous Winter War with Finland of 1939-1940 which saw its military prestige shattered and its invasion not only stopped, but dealt a series of major defeats. Victory of a kind, when it came, was pyrrhic.
Following detailed research, the author provides a vivid and important insight into the operations conducted by the Red Army from 1937 to 1941 and makes some surprising conclusions about the impact of the Purges.
It seems this book haven't been mentioned in this thread, though I posted it somewhere before. Finland in World War II History, Memory, Interpretations
Edited by Tiina Kinnunen and Ville Kivimäki
This volume brings together a rich array of original contributions - hitherto unavailable in English - on Finland during World War II and the place of the war in Finnish collective memory. Providing readers with a solid narrative of the war's political and military framework from a Finnish perspective, this volume also offers well-argued analyses of the ideological, social and cultural aspects of a society at war. As part of the complex legacy of the war it discusses the 'Karelian question' and the Holocaust in Finnish public memory, topics often neglected in international scholarship. Besides a historical narrative, this volume, with its thorough introduction, also reveals to readers the history and current state of Finnish historiography of World War II.
Contributors are Outi Fingerroos, Sonja Hagelstam, Antero Holmila, Markku Jokisipilä, Michael Jonas, Marianne Junila, Tiina Kinnunen, Ville Kivimäki, Helene Laurent, Henrik Meinander, Tenho Pimiä, Oula Silvennoinen, Tuomas Tepora, and Pasi Tuunainen.
One of my favourite books on the Russian front would have to be: Notes of a Russian sniper by vassili zaitsev.This is by far the best first hand account of the battle of Stalingrad that I've read. A must read for anybody intrested in the battle of Stalingrad and eastern front combat.Notes Of A Russian Sniper
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I can't help myself, I have to mention this book here, I love the pictures in this book covering this beast of war, in case anyone else is interested:
Tigers in Combat: Vol.2
Sounds like an interesting book Tytti but very expensive worse luck, may make it hard to source for some.
Notes Of A Russian Sniper by Vassili Zaitsev has been one book I have been thinking about get a copy of for sometime, thanks for reminding me Adrian :)
by Vassili Zaitsev
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Sounds like an interesting book Tytti but very expensive worse luck, may make it hard to source for some."Yep, I guess it's more for foreign historians, Finns won't be buying that. And it's almost the only book available about the subject. But can't blame Finns for the price, Brill is based in Leiden. :-P (Nice town, btw, I've been there while interrailing, saw lots of cats.)
This new book by Schiffer which is due out at the end of 2013 sounds pretty interesting and I am sure a few members might like to check it out:
by Craig W H LutherDescription:
This book examines in unprecedented detail the advance of Germany's Army Group Center through central Russia, toward Moscow, in the summer of 1941, followed by brief accounts of the Battle of Moscow and subsequent winter battles into early 1942. Based on hundreds of veterans accounts, archival documents, and exhaustive study of the pertinent primary and secondary literature, the book offers new insights into Operation Barbarossa, Adolf Hitlers attack on Soviet Russia in June 1941. While the book meticulously explores the experiences of the German soldier in Russia, in the cauldron battles along the Minsk-Smolensk-Moscow axis, it places their experiences squarely within the strategic and operational context of the Barbarossa campaign. Controversial subjects, such as the culpability of the German eastern armies in war crimes against the Russian people, are also examined in detail. This book is the most detailed account to date of virtually all aspects of the German soldiers experiences in Russia in 1941.
Also listed in the New Release thread.
Adrian wrote: "One of my favourite books on the Russian front would have to be: Notes of a Russian sniper by vassili zaitsev.This is by far the best first hand account of the battle of Stalingrad that I've read...."
I want to read this one, too! I loved "War of the Rats."
Some members of the group may find this talk by the author David Stahel quite interesting:http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge...
and
by David Stahel
I just read through all the threads posted on the Eastern Front...thanks for all the good suggestions of new books...The book on THE MYTH Of THE EASTERN FRONT I think is very stimulating..
here is an interview I did with the authors of this book in 2008
http://bobrowen.com/nymas/podcasts/Ji...The interview with the authors of the MYTH OF THE EASTERN FRONT
Thanks for that link Jim, I am sure a few members will check it out.
Hmmm, this new book which is due out in a few months may have to be one of those 'have to haves', what do other members think:
by David Schranckdescription:
After the defeat at Stalingrad, Hitler had lost his momentum and was looking for a way to regain it. Operation Citadel was the intended means to fulfil that objective. If successful a number of Soviet armies would be destroyed and the front line shortened, allowing for a better disposition of troops and a chance to rebuild Germany's exhausted reserves. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the operational events on both salients. It also includes critical analysis of both sides that points out errors of judgment or application that collectively had an important impact on campaign results. The book is highly annotated to give the reader additional sources to study and to provide additional perspectives to gain as complete an understanding of this critical campaign as possible. Besides an extensive text, the book's key strength is its mapping - 32 full-page colour maps are accompanied by 7 large fold-out sheets of maps, also in colour. Together these specially-commissioned maps provide a remarkably detailed guide to the combat operations. Thunder at Prokhorovka is destined to become an important reference to the Battle of Kursk. 32pp colour maps, 7 fold-out colour maps, 9 tables.
Also posted in the New Release thread.
When it comes to reading David Glantz...it requires a very very careful study.I have been listening to him and bringing him to NYC for conferences since 1984...also have visited Europe to watch him in one week long conferences...he organized one in the late eighties on Barbarossa which had all the senior officers from NATO.
I find that it is necessary to xerox all the maps in the book...have the maps with you at a Glantz( glance ) as you go through his books...I have done that with the STALINGRAD series and have digitized all the maps for future reference as I read the books.
His books are extraordinarily detailed. But I have learned with all their detail is that they raise so many issues of what we do not know about these operations that it sort of brings up the Chinese phrase, "the more you know the less you know"...that is certainly true about the Eastern Front when you study David's books in detail...I often find them jump off points to go back and look at some of the older books that have been referenced in these threads, Clark and Ziemke(his work based overwhelmingly on German sources) for example plus wider reading on inter-Allied friction in the war..including looking at FRUS volumes on the great war time conferences...they can be seen at this location at the University of Wisconsin http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collecti...
Part of the reason I do that is I often come up with insights into the
war I had never though of at the grand strategic level..but I try never to lose sight of the tactical -operational level of combat in these examinations.
It is also worthwhile to look at this series if possible..unfortunately, they are generally available in a university library or its equivalent and are insanely expensive to buy...I am surprised they are not in PAPERBACK
This is the Official History of Germany and the Second World War...in German
Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg.
The title in English is
Germany and the Second World War / edited by the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Research Institute for Military History).
Published
Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1990-
Here is a link to some of the series titles
http://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/1002...
It is very good and useful to read in conjunction with David Glantz..the volumes in the series on German War production are quite illuminating
These titles in the series deal with that in depth
v. 4. The attack on the Soviet Union / Horst Boog ... [et al.]
v. 5. Organization and mobilization of the German sphere of power (2 pts.)
v. 6. The global war / Horst Boog ..
Volume 4 is accompanied with a detailed atlas that focuses on the planning and implementation of Barbarossa up to Typhoon.
The Helion books and pen and Sword titles on the Eastern front I will look at in the future but I know they tend to get me lost in the sauce of the details of operations...that is important...CRITICAL.... but I also want to be able to integrate the political-economic-social dimensions into the picture also as I try to understand the dynamics of the greatest bloodbath in human history.
I have to admit sometimes when I examine the Russo-German war it is like reading about the Holocaust...mind boggling
Here is David Glantz speaking at the Army War College...he can go on for hours and hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Clz2...
I never stop learning about the Eastern Front in World War Two...it is endlessly fascinating and its barbarity at times beyond my ability to comprehend
Good post Jim - I've only read a couple of his books, but they are really really deep. When I have time I'll definately look at Mr. Glanz' talk
message 274:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
Thanks Jim - like the Glantz/glance play on words too :)
Excellent post Jim, thanks for that. Good idea about the maps with Glantz's books. I had problems with following things in his account of Kursk, great book, crappy maps - hard to read.
This new book published by an Australian author well known for his books on the Eastern Front may interest a few members here:
by Jason D. MarkDescription:
After 16 months of training and garrison duty in France, Pionier-Bataillon 305 – together with the rest of 305. Infanterie-Division – was sent to the Eastern Front. Little could they know that an inevitable train of events had been set in motion that would lead to their destruction at Stalingrad barely nine months later.
An unprecedented discovery of original material has permitted an examination of the brutal fighting on the Eastern Front through the eyes of one German battalion. Commanded by apolitical officers, reservists mainly, its ranks were filled with older-than-normal recruits. When they arrived on the Eastern Front in May 1942, it was a first time visit for most of them, yet they sensed what awaited them. Everyone knew someone who had been killed in the Soviet Union. Stories about the ferocity of combat on the Eastern Front had reached them through the soldier’s grapevine. They were under no illusions, but still believed they would prevail.
Weeks of monotonous, endless marching were interspersed with terrifying encounters and set-piece attacks. How would this fresh battalion compare with experienced units? Were its men less jaded and more inspired than those that had been at the front since Barbarossa began in June 1941? Was the arrival of a tough, battle-hardened commander enough to compensate for the unit’s lack of combat experience? What effect did the ongoing casualties have on both the soldiers and the battalion’s performance in battle? By exploring and answering these questions and others, this intimate analysis of an ordinary battalion enables the Eastern Front to be seen as never before.
• 620 pages on a high-quality satin (semi-gloss) stock
• 210 x 157mm
• Hardcover only
• 327 photos
• 56 maps and sketches
• 7 aerial photos
• 5 tables
• 3 appendices, including officer biographies and medal lists
The author's web site:
http://www.leapinghorseman.com.au/pro...
This new title may interest a few group members:
by Rostislav AlievDescription:
On 22 June 1941, soon after 3am, the first German shells smashed into the Soviet frontier fortress of Brest - Hitler's Operation Barbarossa had begun. Across a massive front stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the Wehrmacht advanced, taking the Red Army by surprise, brushing aside the first stunned resistance, breaking through and taking thousands of prisoners, but the isolated stronghold of Brest held out. The defenders, trapped and without hope of relief, put up a tenacious resistance against an entire German division as the Soviet front collapsed behind them. The Germans had allowed twelve hours to secure the area, but it took them nine days. The heroic defence of Brest has become one of the legends of the Second World War on the Eastern Front, an example of selfless Soviet heroism in the face of Nazi aggression. Rotislav Aliev, in this gripping narrative, describes the fighting in vivid detail, hour by hour, and he strips away the myths and exaggerations that have grown up around this famous story.
Also posted in the New Release thread.
My copy of The Stalingrad Cauldron: Inside the Encirclement and Destruction of the 6th Army by Frank Ellis arrived today, looks pretty interesting. Each chapter is on a different subject concerning Stalingrad:1. The Battle of Stalingrad in Post-Cold War Perspective
2. 16th Panzer Division inside Fortress Stalingrad
3. "And There Are No Pages That tell of These Heroic Deeds": 94th Infantry Division
4. Eternal Glory: The End of 75th Berlin-Brandenburg Infantry Division
5. K-98 vs. Mosin M 1891/1930: German and Soviet Snipers at Stalingrad and on the Eastern Front
6. German Recruitment of Soviet National Minorities, Deserters and Prisoners on the Eastern Front and in Stalingrad
7. Behind the German and Soviet Lines: Espionage and Counterespionage at Stalingrad
8. The Aftermath of Defeat: German Prisoner of War in the Soviet Camps
9. Return from the house of the Dead: The Arrest, Interrogation, and Repatriation of Oberst Boje (44th Infantry Division)
10. Reconciliation
Appendix A: Finnish Experience in the Training of Snipers
Appendix B: Translation of Chapter 18 ("The Duel") of Vasili Zaitsev's Memoir
plus another four appendix's
by Frank Ellis
Those chapters do look interesting. Adds somethingto a subject that has been well covered.
It does indeed Carl, just need to find some time to read it, maybe when we do the Eastern Front theme read in a few months.
You may all like to read my book, Occupation and Insurgency, which has interviews with S officers/generals, and details the Holocaust from the field perspective, and analyzes the Geneva and hague Conventions with specific actions that occured.
message 282:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
Has anyone read this - it sounds interesting but appears to be very scarce:
by Hans DiboldBrief description:
Austrian doctor attached to the Sixth German Army gives a harrowing account of conditions in Russian prisoner of war camp after the German loss of Stalingrad.
Geevee...now there's a book i,ve always wanted to read, however, as you say, it was either extermely hard to acquire, then, i must say, when avaliable a bit too pricy for me,,, if you do read it please let us know your thoughts.
message 284:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
Hi Wade I'd love to but price and availability suggests it will be a TBR wait for a while (what's the betting Aussie Rick has a copy in his "little" library though!)
No, sorry, could never find one when I first heard about it and then forgot all about it, thanks for reminding me Geevee :)
I did locate a copy of Doctor at Stalingrad for 41.44USD..21.00 USD for shipping...Oaklands Park SA Australlia is the books location....AbeBooks.com..anywhere near your base of operations .Mr.Rick?
a few thousand miles away but not too far for the postman :)
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "No, sorry, could never find one when I first heard about it and then forgot all about it, thanks for reminding me Geevee :)"Wow, I'm surprised - Here I thought you had every book ever printed on WW II in your library :)
That one does look good
I try Happy but can't always succeed :)
I think I will be grabbing a copy of this book when it is released in October. I think a few other members in the group will be doing the same:
by Alexandra RichieDescription:
The traumatic story of one of the last major battles of World War II, in which the Poles fought off German troops and police, street by street, for sixty-three days. The Warsaw Uprising of August 1944 was a shocking event in a hideous war. This is the first account to recall the tragedy from both German and Polish perspectives and asks why, when the war was nearly lost and resources were so urgently needed in the Fatherland, Hitler and Himmler decided to return to Warsaw bent on murder, deportation, and destruction. This was the only time in history that a European capital has ever been emptied of its entire population and destroyed street by street, house by house, razed leaving acres of smouldering ruin. Hundreds were thrown from windows, burned alive, trampled to death. The murder of 40,000 innocents on 5th August was the largest battlefield massacre of the war. But the Poles did not give in. Organized and popular, the Uprising, which had been expected to last under a week, fought off German troops including Himmler's most notorious SS battalions street by street, for sixty-three days. Alexandra Richie is connected to this story through her father-in-law Wladyslaw Bartoszewski who participated in the Uprising and whose vast archive forms the basis of the book, The book charts Nazi crimes but also through the testimony of a Pole press-ganged into a 'cremation detail' who, by living amongst them witnessed the break-down of morale in the SS at the end of the war. Dr Richie puts the Uprising in context of the collapse of Army Group Centre and the now forgotten battles which raged around Warsaw in the summer of 1944. She looks at the implications of Stalin's refusal to help the beleaguered Poles and shows for the first time how the Nazi leadership, and Himmler in particular, hoped that the increasing divisions between the Allies over Warsaw would lead to a Third World War. She also shows how the Uprising affected negotiations over the fate of post- war Europe and is rightly called the first battle of the Cold War.But above all else Warsaw 1944 is the story of a city's unbreakable spirit, in the face of unspeakable barbarism.
Also posted in the New Release thread.
Over the last few months there have been a number of new books published on Operation Typhoon covering both sides of the fighting. In case a few members are interested here are some of the more recent titles on this campaign:German perspective
by David Stahel
by Niklas Zetterling & Anders FranksonRussian perspective
by Lev Lopukhovsky
by Jacky Radey & Charles C. Sharp
Here is a new release title that I am sure will interest a few members here in the group:
by Dmitry KienkoDescription:
Despite the fact that a large number of books and articles have been written about the initial events in the Great Patriotic War, any study dedicated to this period of the war continues to be met with great interest. There is reason to believe that not even 10% of the Russian archival documents, many of which still remain closed to scholars, have been used thus far. Thus any new book that brings into circulation some or other of these resources becomes the next placed brick in the building of historical truth. Dmitry Kienko's study is dedicated to the operations of Soviet aviation formations over Belorussian territory in the initial period of the war, and presents the results of many years of research. The author demonstrates a fine mastery of the historiography of the problem of securing air support in the Belorussian theater of combat operations, and makes wide use of various types of sources (messages, summaries, orders, rosters, reports, etc.). These include both those found in source books of documents, as well as those revealed for the first time from the archives of Belorussia and Russia: the Russian Federation's Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense in Podol'sk, the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow, the Belorussian Republic's National Archive in Minsk, and the Government Archive of Social Organization of Grodno Oblast in Grodno. In addition to the documentary sources, the author has used materials gleaned from research in the field (eyewitness recollections, interviews with participants and archaeological investigations of the locations of former bases and aircraft crash sites), as well as materials from private and museum collections, which has allowed him to conduct a complex analysis of the examined questions and to draw objective conclusions. The study is split into three, each discussing one of the sub-units of the 11th Composite Aviation Division, and each sharing a logical structure. First the author examines the history of the aviation unit's initial formation, then their relocation to Belorussian territory, and then the combat training of the personnel, their equipment, and the life and daily routine in the garrisons. Particular attention is paid to the outbreak of the war and the actions of both the command of the regiments and of their personnel. Kienko scrutinizes the fate of the pilots and their planes, and of those who by chance of fate were otherwise connected with the aviation regiments. The text is significantly enhanced by illustrations (photographs, maps and drawings, many published for the first time) and tables. Kienko's study presents a wide range of fresh materials and research covering the activities of one unit of the VVS or Red Air Force at the very start of the Great Patriotic War, and by so doing enhances our knowledge of this both the air war at this time, and the formations conducting it.
Also posted in the Aviation thread.
Good link , Mike. How about those Soviet women pilots,eh.Tough as nails,of course the Eastern Front demanded this, of both men and women.
This book seems to be a very comprehensive account of the final months of Nazi Germany. I think I will need to find a copy :)
by Russ Schneider
Ooooops, the motion of the boat made me slip and hit the 'buy' button at Amazon! Damn my wife isn't going to be too happy :)
The same author has this book which also sounds very interesting:
by Mr. Russ SchneiderReview:
A new edition of the late authors macabre stories set along the Eastern Front during WWII. A desperate German SS officer stumbles naked from a frigid river, trying to flee the Russian tanks murdering his countrymen on the other side. A Ukrainian Jew claws her way through a pit of human corpses to escape a massacre doled out by Nazi machine guns. ......... Drawing from the epic clash between Nazism and Stalinism, the author masterfully weaves history and fiction to create a nightmarish vision of "cauldron" warfare........Whether there is a real victor in these stories remains unclear as both sides emerge polluted from the conflict. The author's use of simile to depict horrors of battle is a stylistic achievement --dead Germans lie with "shoulders rising up from the ice like men caught turning over in their sleep," while executed Russians dangle from long ropes "like strings of a harp." ---The stories mirror their setting - the bewildering, terrible meat-grinder that was the Eastern Front. - Kirkus Reviews
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Ooooops, the motion of the boat made me slip and hit the 'buy' button at Amazon! Damn my wife isn't going to be too happy :)"That buy button is just too easy to hit!
I Know Robert, it happens all too often and not just with me, I am sure others out there have had the same problem :)
And for our Eastern Front fans here is a new release (October) that should interest a few of you:
by Brian MoynahanDescription:
In Leningrad: Siege and Symphony, Brian Moynahan sets the composition of Shostakovich's most famous work against the tragic canvas of the siege itself and the years of repression and terror that preceded it.
Drawing on extensive primary research in archives as well as personal letters and diaries, he vividly tells the story of the cruelties heaped by the twin monsters of the 20th century, Stalin and Hitler, on a city of exquisite beauty, and of its no less remarkable survival.
Weaving Shostakovich's own story and that of many others into the context of the maelstrom of Stalin's purges and the Nazis' brutal invasion of Russia,Leningrad: Siege and Symphony is a magisterial and moving account of one of the most tragic periods of the twentieth century.
Also posted in the New Release thread.
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Richard Hargreaves (other topics)Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
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Well I've dealt with enough pain and suffering in my life to accept my own mortality. I had already accepted it as such before I was issued my diagnosis. I appreciate the sincerity though!